Advance Wars-like tactics game Wargroove is getting a sequel and yes, the armoured pups are back
Wargroove 2 has a new roguelike mode, new commanders, and a new developer, too.
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Wargroove—the turn-based tactical game from 2019 whose most important gift to the world was itsadorable dog units—is getting a sequel. Announced by publisher Chucklefish, Wargroove 2 will see the colourful Advance Wars-like return at some point this year, and it’s picked up a new developer, too.
Where the first game was madeandpublished by Chucklefish, Wargroove 2 is being developed by Robotality, maker of the strategy games Halfway and Pathway. PCG’s Evan Lahti found the former of those two games a little shallow compared to competing strategy games like Xenonauts in hisHalfway reviewback in 2014, but hopefully Robotality has picked up a few things in the last (oh god) nine years.
Wargroove 2 looks as pretty and pixelated as its predecessor in the clips and screenshots we’ve seen thus far, and seems to have traded out the knights-and-armour aesthetic of the first game for something a bit more piratical and fantastical. It’s set three years after the events of Wargroove 1, and features all sorts of colourful new units and enemies, including giant squids and pyromaniac pirates (pyrates?). Don’t worry, the dogs are still in there.
Chucklefish has a whole list of additions and changes to the sequel that I’ll list below, but the one that leaps out to me is its new single-player roguelike “Conquest” mode. “In these quick-paced, bite-sized battles every choice is permanent,” reads the mode’s description, meaning that “Gold and health carry from skirmish to skirmish, and no unit is dispensable.”
There’s plenty of other new stuff, naturally, including a roster of new player commanders who each have their own unique, tide-turning “Groove” abilities that you can supercharge during the course of battle. Here’s Chucklefish’s list of features it’s announced so far:
We certainly aren’t getting Advance Wars on PC any time soon, Nintendo being Nintendo, so hopefully Wargroove 2 does a good job plugging the hole in our heart. We rather liked the first game, after all: Malindy Hetfield scored it 78% in herWargroove review, praising it for its “creative, demanding challenges.” If Wargroove 2 can refine and improve that formula, I’m all for it. You can find the game’s page over onSteam.
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One of Josh’s first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he’s been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He’ll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin’s Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you’re all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.
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